TLDR: organizational chaos, recruiter no-shows, multiple last-minute cancellations, unresponsive communication and interviewer in the wrong meeting room.

My expertise is rooted in offensive security (~10 years of red teaming, pentesting, social engineering), yet I work heavily with threat intelligence as the two disciplines go hand in hand. I supply my clients with high-quality TI RFIs covering threat actors and major incidents. I figured crossing over to Mandiant would be a logical step, but he hiring process quickly killed that dream.

  1. Screening 1: Recruiter no-show (sick leave).
  2. Screening 2: Rescheduled a week later without checking my availability. Recruiter refused to answer questions about the client or Google team.
  3. Follow-up: Invited to do technical tests and ask questions. Emailed back asking about onboarding and test submit formats (PDF? Doc?). My questions were ignored.
  4. Technical Test: Passed with positive feedback: “We would love to speak to you again! Let’s book Googliness and Leadership interviews with hiring manager 1 and 2.” Interviews were rescheduled 4 times due to schedule conflicts on their side.
  5. HM Interview 1: Canceled 12 minutes before start time.
  6. HM Interview 2: Met Hiring Manager. They acknowledged my strong offensive background but questioned my TI volume.
  7. HM Interview 1: Canceled again.
  8. HM Interview 1: Sat in the active link for 8 minutes. Guessed they joined the old, canceled link. Swapped to the old link and was let in.
  9. The Interviewer: Scheduled senior architect (“Frank”) was absent. Replaced by a random employee (“Bob”) from another department.
  10. The Interview: Bob was visibly disengaged, read generic behavioral questions from a script, and flat-out refused to provide feedback.

By the end of that call, my interest was completely gone.

The Aftermath:

  • Wait Time: 2 weeks of radio silence.
  • Comms: Emailed both recruiters. Received double Out-Of-Office auto-replies.
  • Final Decision: Rejected. Client picked someone with deeper TI experience.
  • Job Post: The exact same ad reappeared on LinkedIn 1 day later.

Given my technical assignments were praised and the client was a government institution, the rejection was almost certainly a hard filter on my background and country of origin rather than a genuine skills gap. It is what it is, but the sheer internal disorganization was a massive red flag.